Results 2,621-2,640 of 11,183 for speaker:Colm Burke

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2021
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
Local Government Fund Account 2021
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 6: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities (1 Jun 2023)

Colm Burke: For instance, in 2022, a target was set. How many local authorities reached their targets?

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2021
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
Local Government Fund Account 2021
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 6: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities (1 Jun 2023)

Colm Burke: It is important that we have that figure because if one is setting targets, we are the Committee of Public Accounts and we want to deliver housing. Everyone in the House wants to make sure adequate housing is delivered. Should the Department not have figures on what local authorities reached their targets immediately available for the committee?

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2021
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
Local Government Fund Account 2021
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 6: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities (1 Jun 2023)

Colm Burke: I am still asking how many local authorities reached their targets and how many did not.

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2021
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
Local Government Fund Account 2021
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 6: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities (1 Jun 2023)

Colm Burke: How is engagement with authorities that did not meet their targets progressing? We must deliver. There is a demand. It is the case that someone has to oversee it. We rely on the Department to oversee local authorities. In fairness, councillors are frustrated as well because they might see their local authority not delivering. What can we do to make sure every local authority reaches its...

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2021
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
Local Government Fund Account 2021
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 6: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities (1 Jun 2023)

Colm Burke: Another issue is the land bank that local authorities have. If Ms Stapleton had an assessment in the morning of the land bank each local authority has, what numbers of housing or residential units would those deliver in each local authority? Do we know what land bank each local authority has? What is their plan over three to four years in relation to those land banks? How many local...

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2021
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
Local Government Fund Account 2021
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 6: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities (1 Jun 2023)

Colm Burke: On the cost analysis of housing being built by local authorities and housing agencies, is there an overall figure? Is there an average figure per local authority comparable to, for example, what is available on the private market? How does that compare, percentage-wise, for example, when a local authority gets 50 houses built and houses are being sold privately in estates quite close to it?...

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2021
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
Local Government Fund Account 2021
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 6: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities (1 Jun 2023)

Colm Burke: Can I ask a final brief question? With regard to approved housing bodies, I came across a few cases where private estates were being built. When private estates are being built, a certain level have to go to local authority housing. The same rule does not apply where an approved housing body buys an entire estate, where a certain percentage has to be for private ownership. I have one in...

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2021
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
Local Government Fund Account 2021
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 6: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities (1 Jun 2023)

Colm Burke: For our example, 85 houses were being built privately. There were many young people. Many had even paid deposits and suddenly the developer was approached by one approved housing body to buy the whole lot of the 85 houses. This was the only opportunity for people to get back into the area. Suddenly, they found it was taken from under them.

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2021
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
Local Government Fund Account 2021
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 6: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities (1 Jun 2023)

Colm Burke: Is it not something that should be looked at?

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2021
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
Local Government Fund Account 2021
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 6: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities (1 Jun 2023)

Colm Burke: Especially where there is an area with little opportunity for people to buy themselves and to move back into their own home area. Many would have been involved in sports organisations and community groups in the area. They could not get a house locally and had to move ten miles out, then when they got the opportunity, it was suddenly swiped from them again.

Public Accounts Committee: Appropriation Accounts 2021
Vote 34 - Housing, Local Government and Heritage
Local Government Fund Account 2021
2021 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 6: Central Government Funding of Local Authorities (1 Jun 2023)

Colm Burke: I thank the Chair.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (1 Jun 2023)

Colm Burke: Could I raise the issue of the National Treatment Purchase Fund? It has overall responsibility for negotiating under the fair deal scheme. As the Chair knows, up to €1.5 billion, which is up from €1 billion, is now being expended on nursing home care. This matter also concerns work sent from the HSE to private hospitals. I am not sure whether we can get in witnesses from the...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (1 Jun 2023)

Colm Burke: I agree that we need to examine this issue. When the scheme was introduced, over 20 years ago, I felt it would never work. It was fine when rents were reasonably low but it did not factor in the situation when rent would start to rise. It was a little different from about 2008 and 2009 on, when there was no money to buy housing, but the circumstances have now changed totally. There is now...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (1 Jun 2023)

Colm Burke: And there is nothing to show for it.

Written Answers — Department of Health: Hospital Facilities (1 Jun 2023)

Colm Burke: 40. To ask the Minister for Health if he will confirm the date when the four-storey building attached to Mallow Hospital will be completed, taking into account that it is to accommodate 48 hospital beds on floors two and three; if he will confirm that the 40 rooms between the ground floor and the first floor will be utilised for patients that require rehabilitation; when it is expected that...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Nursing Homes (1 Jun 2023)

Colm Burke: 45. To ask the Minister for Health if he will confirm that the 240 beds which have been lost in public nursing homes and community hospitals in the Cork-Kerry region due to reconfiguration in the past four years, will be replaced by the end of 2023; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26605/23]

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Apprenticeship Programmes (1 Jun 2023)

Colm Burke: 125. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the action he has taken to date in increasing apprenticeship places, as well as their starting remuneration; his upcoming plans in this sector; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26603/23]

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Schools Building Projects (1 Jun 2023)

Colm Burke: 179. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will confirm when a school (details supplied) can progress to construction for a three-classroom extension; the current status of the project; the reason for delays in this project; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [26769/23]

Written Answers — Department of Justice and Equality: Visa Applications (1 Jun 2023)

Colm Burke: 242. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if she will confirm the progress that has been made to date in respect of having a single application process, both for employment permits and entry visa applications; if an interdepartmental group has been established between her Department and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment to review same; and if she...

Written Answers — Department of Health: Health Services (1 Jun 2023)

Colm Burke: 326. To ask the Minister for Health if he will provide a status update regarding the proposals for a national screening programme for generic haemochromatosis in primary and hospital care settings, submitted to the National Screening Advisory Committee in January 2023 (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26771/23]